Channel 4 is to screen a programme about a man who ran up debts of £250,000 buying four pubs on credit cards.
Andy Banwell, 44, used 10 cards from well-known lenders to fund his pub collection but ended up broke and with a £300 credit limit.
According to The Sun, he bought a 30-year lease of the Monkton Inn near Taunton, Somerset, for £25,000 seven years ago and sold at a loss 18 months later after spending £24,000 on it.
The Kellaway Arms, in Horfield, in his native Bristol, was bought on similar terms.
The King's Head, in nearby Whitehall, cost £25,000 for a 30-year lease, and soon afterwards he took on the Bunch of Grapes in the city centre.
Once the Grapes began losing cash, Banwell sold the Kellaway. He later quit the Grapes after struggling to pay the £13,000-a-year rent.
He told the paper: "I'd apply for cards and be accepted. Every time I went over my limit they increased it further.
"Sometimes I'd even call saying I need an extra £10,000 and they'd just say 'OK'. The debt just mounted."
His case is being highlighted to show Britain's growing problem with personal debt which stands at £1.3trillion.